“Surging”, a report exhibition of the Third Studio Creative Course of the Department of Sculpture, CAFA, is presented at the Channel Gallery in the Department of Sculpture, CAFA, on November 4 going through to November 11, 2013. The exhibition features more than 10 works by the 6 students from the Third Studio of the Department of Sculpture including Tong Kunniao, Yu Tao, Liu Shuyan, Peng Yun, Shen Zhicheng, and Yang Mushi. It is a creative course achievement show from Professor Jiang Jie, who gave the students a wide creative space, allowing them to creative works based on their own interests. It took only four weeks from drawing up the programs to producing works, to the arrangement and exhibition, completed by the 6 students under the direction of the teacher.

Yu Tao’s “Broken Eggs” uses mud, hair and needles as creative materials. Yu Tao believes that hair and needles would give a sense of unease. Seen from the surface, Yu Tao’s works are not huge, but he has completed many trials, thinking of a lot of programs, such as, how to keep the eggs perfect after being fired for a long time, giving a variety of light with the help of different techniques, the effect has not been rendered yet due to timing issues.

Tong Kunniao exhibits a total of four works including “I Am Fine”, “Declining Heart”, “Hit a Chicken” and “The Wanted”, which apply a complex electric mechanical principle, from which we can see that Tong is fascinated with machinery. “I Am Fine” consists of a toy chicken, loudspeaker and long pipeline, inside the pipe playing “I am Fine”, which responds to the title “I Am Fine”. “Declining Heart” is with the use of an electric machine to make the red heart shaped balloon that is tied on it, extending up and down, and on the machine there is a long needle waiting for the declining balloon. Also applying the mechanical principle, “Hit a Chicken” uses a long “iron needle” to constantly hit a toy chicken, with the “sting” bursts of screams are heard. When his toy chicken that given to him by a classmate was stolen, the works entitled “The Wanted” started. It seems that there isn’t any difference between art and life for Tong Kunniao.

Liu Shuyan displays three of his works including “Tide”, “Surging” and “Menstruation”, applying silks, cottons, mirrors and a bicycle seat to his creation. The works “Tide”, where a variety of human organs were sewn up with cotton and silk, such as breasts and genitals, connected by a black line, these are narcissistic in front of mirrors; the bicycle seat of “Surging” is also attached to the private parts of the human body. These works reveal that Liu Shuyan is interested in the privacy inside the human body, especially a woman’s privacy.

Shen Zhicheng’s “7.13 Seconds” is mainly made of gear and wood, in addition to two oil paintings related to the works. The reason why he calls the works “7.13 Seconds” is that 13 and 7 are very unusual numbers for Shen, and he has a lot of predestined relationships with13, while 7 is the most frequently appearing number in the bible, representing perfection, and the whole. The subject of the oil paintings and the wood carving is Shen Zhicheng himself, is in a concretionary time, turning his head and spreading his arms … Shen Zhicheng expresses his thinking and helplessness through the works.

In the works “Nature”, Peng Yun uses foam boards to build a space, and puts thirty modified recording chips (collect and record a variety of daily noises) in it and plays them at the same time. More and more voices are used as various signals and indicators… among which we are busy and numb. Peng Yun applies simple recording tools to record sounds, trying to make them talk to each other, and the mixing sound seems like the sound of jungle birds, a mixture of the fuzzy and intriguing.

The creative materials of Yang Mushi’s “Extended” are wood and ink, rendering an artistic conception which is wispy, mysterious and imaginative.

Most of these students’ works start from the individual’s feelings, although they are still young, they have created the completed and interesting works in a short time, whether the works are good or not is not important, while their creative passion and sincerity infects the spectators that are present. As the teacher Jiang Jie said in the preface of the exhibition: All the students are immersed in their creations, tensely working in a short space of time, input is for love, each of them working hard, so their working status is exciting.

Journalist: Ye Yuanfeng, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Photo: Yang Yanyuan, courtesy of the artists for part of the photos